


Exhaustion

by jennygotfamous



Series: Dialogue [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 22:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18417548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennygotfamous/pseuds/jennygotfamous
Summary: Nothing but words between Spike and Xander.





	Exhaustion

**Author's Note:**

> In the effort to get back into writing I thought I'd migrate some of the fics I still like from my old LJ account to here. For now it's just Spander but yknow, I'm flexible.

“Hey Spike?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“What’re you doing?”  
  
“Watching telly. What’s it look like, berk?”  
  
...  
  
“Hey Spike?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“How come you and Angel are pretty much the only vampires who don’t spend most of their time fangy?”  
  
“We’re not.”  
  
“Oh... but, most of the vamps Buffy slays are all... y’know Grr! Argh!”  
  
“S’cause they’ve still got grave dirt behind their ears.”  
  
“Oh... What do you mean?”  
  
“The older you get the more you learn to understand the demon’s instincts, the easier it is to control them.”  
  
“So really old vamps can control all their instincts? They’re like humans again?”  
  
“Didn’t say that. The older you get, the less human you become.”  
  
“So you become even more demon-y?”  
  
“Just more jaded.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“I said “something like that”.”  
  
...  
  
“Hey Whelp?”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“What’s got you playing twenty questions?”  
  
“Oh, curiousity mostly. Not often you get to question a vampire, over a century old, tied to a chair in your basement.”  
  
“You question other people tied to a chair in your basement?”  
  
“Not as a general rule, no. Although there was that one time Anya… so not going there with you.”  
  
“What happened to demon girl anyway?”  
  
“We were... compensating.”  
  
“You lacking something in certain areas, Harris?”  
  
“Not like that pervy-vampire-guy. We fit together because we didn’t fit anywhere else. Had a talk, and decided maybe it was better to try and find people who fit, without the “because”.”  
  
“Cried like a little girl didn’t you?”  
  
“There may have been crying, of the manly variety.”  
  
...  
  
“Whelp?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“You’re awfully chatty for someone who hates me.”  
  
“Was that a question?”  
  
“Might have been.”  
  
“It’s too hot to do anything but lie here, I’m not tired  _because_  it’s so freakin’ hot, and you’re actually... pretty interesting to talk to. Hey do vampires ever get hot?”  
  
“No pulse, remember? No body heat either.”  
  
“No I know that, I took vampire 101, Mister Smart Vamp. I just meant, does the temperature ever make you uncomfortable.  
  
“Don’t much like the cold.”  
  
“What about the heat?”  
  
“I... like it. It’s - bloody hell, it’s comforting, yeah?”  
  
“You know I get that. When I get really sick, even if I sweat like a pig I still curl up under the heaviest blanket I can find and roast myself. Something about the warmth.”  
  
...  
  
“Spike?”  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“Do you ever miss it?”  
  
“Miss what? Being human?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Nah, I was a ponce when I was human. I miss some things though. Like warm sand.”  
  
“Warm sand?”  
  
“When I was a lad, my Ma took me to the beach. Not even a beach, just this tiny patch of land on the coastline. Wasn’t really sand, mostly shells and stones, but the ground was warmer than anything I could remember.”  
  
“What about going right after dusk. There’s a beach not too far from here.”  
  
“Doesn’t hold the heat too well. The sand would be almost cold by the time I can walk on it without getting singed.”  
  
“Oh... I’m sorry.”  
  
“Don’t be. Like being a vampire.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Thinking of converting to a different faith, eh Harris?”  
  
“Ok, vampires and religion metaphors don’t really mix. And no, I don’t want to be a vampire, but it would be nice to understand the people that do.”  
  
“There’s a lot more going on upstairs than people give you credit for y’know.”  
  
“Thanks, I think? So, you going to answer?”  
  
“I’m stronger, faster, tougher. If I try, I can hear a heartbeat at twenty feet. Feel more alive now than I ever did before I died.”  
  
“Huh.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Nothing. Just noting the irony in you feeling more alive now.”  
  
“Oh, big word for the grade school-er.”  
  
“Bite me, Fangless.”  
  
...  
  
“Wouldn’t mind being a vampire right at the moment.”  
  
“Eh?!”  
  
“I know you don’t feel it the same way I do but you have to realise just how hot it is. I can’t even breathe without making myself hotter.”  
  
“Got the same problem, mate. Only nothin’ to do with the temperature.”  
  
“Spike...”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“You don’t breathe.”  
  
“... Well played, Whelp.”  
  
...  
  
“Spike?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Never mind.”  
  
...  
  
“Spike?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Nothing.”  
  
...  
  
“Spike?”  
  
“Bloody hell! What?!”  
  
“Would it - don’t worry.”  
  
...  
  
“Harris?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Spit it out already.”  
  
“Ok, um. You can’t bite people, right?”  
  
“Chip, lackwit.”  
  
“Right, and you like the heat, right?”  
  
“You gone senile all of a sudden.”  
  
“Would it, I mean, would you - could I…?”  
  
“Sodding hell, out with it before you die of old age.”  
  
“Ok, umm. If I untie you. Could I umm...”  
  
“What!”  
  
“CouldIuseyoulikeareversehotwaterbottle? It’s just it’s so  _hot_  and I’m so exhausted I feel like I’m about to pass out, but I can’t because  _it’s so hot_  and you said you like the heat, and I figure I’m about a million degrees right about now and this was a stupid idea never mind.”  
  
...  
  
“Xander?”  
  
“Um, yeah?”  
  
“Can’t cool you down if I’m tied to a chair.”  
  
“Oh, um... Ok, yeah, sure. You sure you’re not going to eat me?”  
  
“ _Chip_.”  
  
“Right, sorry. So how did you want to... Whoah, ok, and with the man-handling. Holy crap, you really are cold!”  
  
“Better?”  
  
“So much so I really don’t even care about being the little spoon.”  
  
“Ponce.”  
  
...  
  
“Whelp?”  
  
“Zzzz”


End file.
